It is amazing that Children's Commissioner Dr Cindy Kiro would so quickly condemn a jury of her peers for deciding that the North Otago woman who administered six of the best to her son was justified in using this force.

You can be sure the jury were drilled in the nuances of Section 59: that the force had to be reasonable in the circumstances and that it had to be for the purposes of correction, not vengeance or punishment. The jury only took an hour to come to a conclusion that both of these factors were present. They had all the facts before them. Dr Kiro does not.

Dr Kiro is suggesting that these 12 jurors are too thick to tell the difference between reasonable force and abuse. Such condescension is breathtaking. It is a form of bullying and intimidation when it comes from someone in her position of power and authority.

Worse still is her caricatures of parents who smack their children. She assumes parents smack their children when, at the end of their tethers, they explode in anger and frustration. She is free to speak about her own parenting experiences this way. She is also free to denigrate her own parents who, she says, "basically hit us", but again, she errs greatly in painting the rest of us in these outrageous colours.

Family Integrity objects strongly to this slur Dr Kiro has delivered to all the parents in New Zealand. Family Integrity also wishes to advise Dr Kiro in all sincerity that such inappropriate and uninformed comments call her credibility into serious question.

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